


The Quick and the Dead 2: Card Games on Motorcycles

by RedTeamShark



Series: The Quick and the Dead [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - The Fast and the Furious, Amputation, Car Accidents, Car Chases, F/F, F/M, Gambling, Human Trafficking, Las Vegas, Past Relationship: Cinder Fall/Emerald Sustrai, Yang Xiao Long: Unstoppable Pansexual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-11
Updated: 2018-03-28
Packaged: 2019-03-25 15:17:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 20,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13837488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedTeamShark/pseuds/RedTeamShark
Summary: She never intended to go back to the police, decided to give up that life for something she’d always wanted. But when the opportunity to clear the criminal records from her new family comes along, Yang couldn’t say no. Even if clearing their names might cost her everything.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> SEQUELLLLLL! It's been almost a year in the making but HERE IT IS BABY! A million and one shout outs to my lovely beta Mika for helping make this story come together and make sense as well as everyone for being patient with me and encouraging while I got it done!

He hung up the phone with a groan, reaching for the top drawer of his desk. There was a flask there, probably still had alcohol in it, that would be enough to--

One brisk knock on the door of his office was all the warning he got, before someone was barging in and slamming their hands onto his desk. Qrow looked up from his drawer, letting go of the flask with a sigh. “Yes?”

Another person joined them, much more sedate and collected. Glynda Goodwitch, liaison between FBI and CIA. Well, this was going to be fun. “Agent Branwen, this is Agent--”

“Winter Schnee. You’re working my sister’s case. I want all the information.”

Qrow looked past her, eyes on Glynda. “Does Jimmy know about this?”

“Deputy Director Ironwood gave me special permission to assist on this case,” Winter answered before Glynda could even open her mouth, her icy eyes tracking over the files spread across his desk. 

“Funny, no one on my end told me there was going to be any special permissions… I’m not even in Missing Persons, you know. Are you sure you have the right office?”

“I’m sure. Weiss Schnee, twenty-one. Disappeared three days ago. Her girlfriend, Blake Belladonna, reported her missing.” Winter glanced at the window, frowning. “Her family isn’t talking to the police about it.”

Qrow raised an eyebrow, nodding slowly. “Have a seat. Glynda, thanks for the effort.”

Glynda shrugged, turning and walking away, the door shutting behind her. She’d done the best she could, but arguing against both Qrow  _ and _ Winter was the sort of uphill battle she wouldn’t even try to win.

“Agent Schnee… Winter. Whatever. I’m in Organized Crime, not Missing Persons.” He glanced at the closed door, opening his desk drawer and pulling out a file. “But, due to… extenuating circumstances, I  _ was _ contacted about the case involving your sister. And I put a team on it. A very professional team.” He pushed the file to her, nodding. “You might have seen it on the news, the WTCH arrests. I put the team from that case on this one when someone from the local PD contacted me.”

Winter took the file, flipping through it slowly. She looked up with a frown, tapping the page. “Yang Branwen. Your daughter?”

“Niece, actually. Used her mother’s name as a cover. Her actual name is Yang Xiao Long.”

“Looks like she went off the radar shortly after the case was solved. Only one perpetrator served time for it.” Winter frowned, tapping the sheet. “Some track record.”

“We went after the bigger fish. Look, Yang made friends on this job. Including Blake Belladonna, the one who reported your sister missing. If anyone can get inside this case, it’s her.”

Her frown deepened as she closed the file and pushed it back to him. “I hope you’re right.”

“Don’t worry, she’s one of my best.”

* * *

The sirens that chased them down the street made her laugh, Yang’s hand squeezing the throttle just a little harder. Next to her she could feel Mercury’s grin, his bike edging past hers. Oh,  _ hell _ no. Not a chance.

Yang pushed herself just that much faster, the bridge that marked the county line just ahead. The state police hadn’t gotten involved yet, it was only the county cops chasing them down. Cross the finish line, leave the county, no problems. Do it in front of Mercury, even better.

The two of them hit the bridge at the same time, the squeal of car tires behind them as they crossed out of their jurisdiction. Yang hit the brakes, skidded to a stop and looked over at Mercury. She pulled her helmet off, smirking, a quick glance at her watch. “9.7. Come on, you promised me better than this.”

“That was more than a quarter mile, so. Suck it.” He shrugged, pulling his helmet off and leaning over, kissing her. “Aren’t you supposed to, y’know, not do illegal things?”

“Ah, the county boys are small time. Now, if we got a state trooper or two on us…”

“Like them?”

She looked over her shoulder, the cop car that had rolled up on them with lights and no sirens. Well. shit… “Let me do the talking, okay?”

The car stopped, door opening and a cop stepping out slowly. Yang leaned on her bike, forcing her face into a stern look. “It’s okay, officer, I caught him. Yang Branwen, FBI. My credentials are in my saddlebag and--”

“Really, kiddo? Impersonating a federal agent?” Taiyang stepped around the door, walking over and ruffling her hair. “You’re lucky they sent me out for this reckless driving nonsense.”

“I thought you only drove a desk now, old man.”

“Unless some punks start causing trouble across county lines.” He kissed her forehead, looking to Mercury. “Well, nice to finally meet your boyfriend. My shotgun’s in the trunk, if you want me to work that angle.”

“I think it’s okay, Dad.” Yang grinned, pulling her dad into a hug. “Missed you.”

“Missed you too. Come on, let’s go down to the station. I’ll brief you guys on the Schnee case. Call your other friends in, too. Emerald’s already there.” He started back to the squad car, pausing to look over his shoulder. “And follow the speed limits.”

Yang glanced at Mercury, shrugging. “That sounds like a suggestion, not a rule, right?”

“Of course.” Mercury mounted his bike, throttling up and peeling away from the bridge. Yang was close behind, both of them blasting by her dad’s squad car in seconds.

The station was about as she remembered, bustling cops trying to get too many things done at once. Always stretched too thin. It was a world she remembered well, a world she could easily immerse herself in again.

Until Mercury took her hand, squeezed and caught her eye with a grin. “Last place I thought I’d walk into without handcuffs.”

“I can cuff you, if it’d make you more comfortable, but that might make everyone else uncomfortable…” She laughed, fingers linking with his and curling. “You see Emerald?”

“Not yet… Not entirely sure she’s going to want to see us, either.”

“Dad says she’s been cooperative… Says that she seems ‘rehabilitated’ from prison.”

“Something like that,” Taiyang spoke up from behind them, passing them and leading towards one of the conference rooms. “Come on, the rest of the team is here. Qrow’s even down from the field office.”

“All this for one missing person?” Yang asked, frowning as they got to the conference room.

“We’ll… Get to that.”

* * *

"Blake?"

"Yang!" Blake crossed the room and hugged her tight for a moment, before pulling back. "Why didn't you tell me you were a cop?!"

"Uh... I was under cover?" She rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. "Sorry for just... Disappearing. Things kinda moved fast."

"You're lucky I came in to report you as missing when Emerald's arrest hit the news. And talked to your dad. He filled me in... But a phone call would have been nice!" She punched her arm lightly, smiling. "Nice to see you again. You, too, Mercury. I guess."

"Feeling is pretty mutual, Belladonna."

Yang looked around the room, frowning slightly. Her and Mercury, that made sense. Qrow had asked them to come. Her dad, another logical conclusion, would be on his way in soon. Roman and Neo had opted to skip the boring parts, and were house hunting around town. Something about a garden tub and screened in porch on police dime. They sure were going to be disappointed.

That left Emerald unaccounted for and Blake unexplained. Before she could even articulate the first question, however, two doors opened up and three more people stepped into the room. Her father from behind her, Emerald from across the room, and…

“Ruby?”

“Yang!”

Deja vu all over again as they hugged, Mercury shuffling past her to stand near Emerald. Understandable, she’d been practically dying the last time he’d seen her. Even from across the room, Yang could see a nasty scar trailing up her right arm. She could only imagine how the gunshot wound looked. 

Ruby smiled as she crossed the room, reaching back to her pocket and unlocking the cuffs on Emerald’s wrists. “Stupid formalities… Um, have a seat, and I think we’re ready to start?”

As they gathered around the table, Qrow stepped over to Taiyang, speaking quietly and handing over a file. Yang raised an eyebrow to her dad, getting only a dismissive shrug in return. Okay…

“So, first off, this isn’t my case. I’m technically on vacation, but I figure I can loan you all some coordination efforts.” Qrow looked around the room, sighing and dropping a file onto the table. “Weiss Schnee, disappeared about a week ago.”

“Ten days ago,” Blake cut in, crossing her arms. 

“Yeah, technically, but we finally got someone in her family to talk and they say she left on a trip a week ago. So somewhere in there is when she actually disappeared. Her family refuses to confirm her missing, which is making this… Sort of an unofficial investigation. I’m working on that side of it. For the other side… Well, you tell them.” He nodded to Blake.

“Okay, so… About two years ago, I was hired by the Schnee Corporation to be Weiss’s off-hours bodyguard. We got along pretty well, all things considered, and… started dating after a bit. Very discreetly, at first, because I was still technically her employee, but things moved along. A month ago, her brother found out and decided to share this fact with her father. Not too long after that I was fired. I get it. But two weeks ago… I get two texts. One from Weiss, saying that she’s breaking up with me, never contact her again, she’ll get a restraining order if she has to. Very abrupt, very unexpected. We’d talked about the possibilities of being found out, what might happen, what we’d do. This had never come up.

“But the other text… That was from an unknown number. Probably a burner phone or something. It said to ignore the text from Weiss and to go to the finish line at midnight that night. So I went, and Weiss came by and... “ She looked away, rubbing her arm slightly, cheeks pink. “Uh, the relevant information is that she told me she was being taken off the company board and basically disowned. Said the same thing happened to her older sister when she joined the military.”

“Harsh,” Mercury muttered, crossing his arms.

“The Schnees are a cutthroat group. Have to be, to stay on top,” Qrow agreed.

“So… she told me that she was basically going to be on her own soon. That was the last time I saw her. Two days later she was in the papers about the step down, officially placing her younger brother in charge. The disowning part didn’t make the news, imagine that.” Blake snorted. “So that was ten days ago. That was the last time she made a public appearance, and the night before… She was nervous. Kept looking over her shoulder. Now suddenly she’s on ‘vacation’ with money that she no longer has and her family isn’t saying anything. So I… came here.”

Yang exhaled slowly, closing her eyes. “Well… shit. And let me guess, we don’t have any leads.”

“Not quite.” Tai took over, flipping open a file. “I pulled some strings and got a priority on facial recognition. Those body scanners at the airports? They store your image for about a month. I ran Weiss’s face against the stored images and she went through the airport eight days ago.” He held up a hand when Yang sat up. “ _ Unfortunately _ , all we have is that she--or someone that looks enough like her to ping the recognition--did it. No destination so far. We’re working on it. But it matches up with the ‘she went on vacation’ story.”

“What about airport security cameras?”

“We’re looking, but so far we haven’t seen her. Unfortunately for us, she picked a busy time of day. We can’t find her in the crowd to start tracking her through the airport.

“What we  _ do _ know is that her passport hasn’t cropped up yet, so she’s likely still in the country. Not that that really narrows it down.”

The room went quiet, everyone digesting the information. After a minute, Emerald leaned over, speaking quietly to Ruby.

“Hm? Oh, yeah! Yeah, that could be--you should tell everyone, Em.”

“Tell us what?” Blake’s eyes snapped to Emerald, a frown on her face.

“I’ve… Done this before. Before there was facial recognition build into security checkpoints--which, by the way, is some  _ 1984 _ bullshit. You need to disappear so you make people think you’re on a plane to somewhere. Go to the airport, go through security, be visible. Once you’re in the terminal you go to the bathroom--totally reasonable thing to do--and change up your appearance. New clothes, hide your hair, all of that. Dump your suitcase in the corner and walk back out. Then you just leave. Anyone looking for you is going to waste time looking through hours of gate security cameras or your ticket to be marked as boarded. And meanwhile you go down to the curb, get a taxi, go to a hotel, walk to a car rental place, and disappear. It takes some planning and a few fake IDs, but it’s not impossible.”

Stunned silence met this information, except for Mercury who was nodding. “It really is some  _ 1984 _ bullshit. But it’s stupidly easy to work around. Hell, thanks to that  _ 1984 _ bullshit, you don’t even know where she was supposedly going.”

“Okay, smart guy, what do we do now?” Yang huffed, nudging his shoulder.

“Now we find out if Weiss wanted to disappear… Or if someone else wanted her to. Duh.”


	2. Chapter 2

After a long day, a beer was nice. He did his best not to over-indulge anymore, hangovers weren’t as easy to shrug off as they had been back in college, but after a long day… 

Sitting down at a back table with Qrow and fixing him with a skeptic’s stare really just made it feel longer. Even over beer. “The Schnee’s haven’t made any comment to police. We can’t even get them to talk to us.”

Qrow raised his bottle to his lips, taking a long drink while keeping his eyes on Tai. He finally set it down, leaning back in the chair. “I know.”

“Yet you suddenly have a statement from them.”

“Not.. officially.” The men took another drink, the silence spinning out. “Did you know that Weiss has an older sister? Winter… Or, more formally, Agent Schnee of the CIA. Works directly with James Ironwood.”

“Jesus Christ... “

“That CIA… I mean, I realize I’m one of the Feds, too, but they just know  _ too _ much. Apparently she keeps a tab on her family and when the girlfriend came to you to report Weiss missing, Winter was told about it. Called back home and got the story about her being on vacation. I don’t even know how she figured out that you and I know each other, but she came into my office and wanted to make sure things were resolved. She’s doing what she can to help… Schnees might be ice cold, but that one at least cares about her sister.”

Tai sat back, letting the story settle in his head, working out the order of events. “You know, I miss the days when I just had to watch out for drunk drivers.”

They shared a look over their empty bottles, before Qrow laughed. “No you don’t. You like driving a desk, knowing that every night you get to go home to your girls’ smiling faces.”

* * *

The downtown high rise had a doorman. A doorman. A man who opened the door for them. Mercury kept staring even after they’d crossed the lobby to the elevator, nudging Yang as they waited for it. “Were we supposed to tip him?”

She looked over her shoulder, turning back to him slowly. “I hope not? I don’t have any cash with me.”

“We should tip him next time we leave. Oh, god, what if there’s more than one?” He stepped into the elevator with her, looking around quickly. No elevator attendant. Thank god. Was that still a job people had? Also, who the hell had Roman and Neo offed to get into a building with a  _ doorman _ ? Did they just break into someone else’s house and take it as their own? Were they all going to end up in a ditch somewhere? “You know, we might have the wrong place.”

Yang pushed him out of the elevator and into the penthouse, snorting. “Come on, it’s the address Roman texted you. And they gave us the penthouse key when we came in. Unless…  _ he _ broke into someone’s house.” She had to admit, this looked nothing like a crash pad. She had to wonder who died here to open it up. And if anyone would be looking to get some revenge on the new tenants… “You think it used to be an opium den?”

The entryway stepped into a kitchen, spacious counters, wide island with barstool seating for four, and one of those farmhouse sinks all the renovation shows were always raving about. A furnished living room filled the space between the kitchen island and the wall of ocean-viewing windows, comfortable couches and a TV roughly the size of Rhode Island. Through those windows were more cozy-looking couches and chairs, laid out on the deck to let them appreciate the view of downtown.

Doors on either side probably led to bedrooms, if Yang had to guess. She dropped her bag on the counter, stepping further into the room and raising her voice. “Roman? Neo? Are you two tied up in a closet somewhere because the owner came home and is trying to  _ Saw _ you?” Those kitchen tiles looked like the kind that wouldn’t leave any mysterious murder-related stains.

That finally got some movement in the house, the door to the left opening. Neo stepped out, the sound of Roman’s snoring following her before she shut the door. Soundproofing, Yang noted with a growing smile. There was no way the station was footing the bill for this place without it having been some sort of opium den.

Neo rubbed her eyes as she joined them in the kitchen, bare feet whispering across the cool tiles. She hopped onto one of the barstools, leaning on the island and giving them a sleepy smile and wave.  _ You like? _

“Not bad.” Mercury’s fingers moved as he spoke, eyes scanning the space. “Get your garden tub?”

_ Of course.  _ Neo’s grin widened as she gestured to the deck.  _ Roman gave up his screened in porch for the view. _

“Smart move.” He took a seat next to her, letting the shorter girl drop her head to his shoulder. “So when sleeping beauty wakes up, we’ll tell you what we know about this whole Schnee thing.”

Silence filled only by Neo’s fingers tapping on the counter. Yang crossed to the living room, sliding the glass door open and stepping onto the deck. When it slid shut behind her, Neo let out a breath.  _ Emerald? _

“She’s… okay. Maybe better off.”

_ Did you tell her about Cinder? _

“No time. We didn’t get to be alone.” Mercury looked over his shoulder, frowning. “Besides, there’s not really anything we can do.”

Neo’s weight shifted, drawing his focus back to her hands.  _ I don’t like it. Not telling her feels wrong. Like she’s not part of the family anymore. We let her take the fall for us. She deserves to know-- _ The signs were either coming too fast or had dissolved into incoherency, Mercury wasn’t sure. He set his hand lightly over Neo’s, stilling her shaking fingers.

“We’ll do what we can when we can. Until then… Enjoy your garden tub.”

* * *

Taking a seat on the edge of the bed and swinging her feet, Ruby kept her eyes on Emerald. She watched the other girl pace around the room, wondering just what had her so on edge. Every now and then she’d pick something up and put it back down, or dart her attention to Ruby before looking away. Whatever was on her mind would come out of her mouth sooner or later. Ruby just had to hope that Emerald would want to talk about it before she had to leave for the night.

Patience won in the end, Emerald crossing to the bed, settling onto it and leaning herself into Ruby’s shoulder until gravity bullied them both into lying down. “I shouldn’t care.”

“But you do.”

“ _ You _ shouldn’t care.”

“You know I do Em.” Ruby’s fingers touched Emerald’s as arms wrapped around her, linking together slowly. “Was it seeing them again?” Part of Emerald’s parole was therapy, technically a state mandate for all convicted felons. A lot of what she’d talked about in that office she shared with Ruby.

“It wasn’t… I’m not upset that they’re where they are. I know…” Emerald frowned into the back of Ruby’s neck, steadying her breathing. “When that last job went bad and I was so messed up, do you know what I remember? I remember Yang staying beside me, telling me it was going to be okay, the paramedics were on the way. I remember seeing Roman and Mercury and… and… just get in the car and drive away.” Her voice shook, the words choking with an effort to keep emotion out of them.

When she seemed to have worked through it again, breathing truly steady, Ruby shifted, turned in Emerald’s arms to face her. She reached up, brushing mint green hair back and kissing the other girl’s forehead lightly. There was no perfect advice, no magic word that could make it not hurt. She’d tried and it only seemed to tear the other girl apart more. Silence was what she settled with, silence and the comfort of lying so close, they could feel each other’s heartbeats.

Right up until her ringtone decided to ruin in, blasting the familiar notes that she’d recorded off her dad’s TV forever ago and never bothered to change, the tire screech at the end before restarting. Ruby scrambled for her phone, sitting up and pulling it to her ear. “Officer Rose here.”

Emerald let go and sat back as Ruby stood, the shorter girl’s turn to pace the room. A lot of “mm-hmm” and “I see” and “okay” was all she could hear. Official police business, the ringtone said. Something serious, the pacing implied. Ruby would probably have to leave soon. 

When she hung up the phone and turned back to Emerald, she was ready for the goodbyes, the quick hugs and hesitant kisses. What she wasn’t ready for was the way Ruby practically threw herself into her arms, infectious grin growing. “They got her!”

“What?”

“Weiss, they found her. Well, they’re almost positive. We’re going back in tomorrow if they can confirm it, but there’s a thirty percent match on face recognition.” She bounced excitedly on her heels, pulling Emerald up to her feet. 

“Where?” Ruby’s excitement was contagious, even if she knew that thirty percent wasn’t quite the same as ‘we found her.’

“Vegas.”

* * *

“Vegas.”

“That’s what the match says, Clockwork Orange. It’s only a thirty percent positive, but… It’s the best lead we’ve got.”

“Do you know what happens to guys like me in Vegas?” Roman looked around the room, clearing his throat. “Look, I’m just saying, no need for all of us to go galavanting off to Sin City on taxpayer dollars, right? That’s some upstanding citizen talk, is what that is. If I paid taxes, I wouldn’t--” Neo elbowed him and he snapped his mouth shut.

_ We’re not going to Vegas. _

Tai rolled his eyes, turning to Yang and Mercury. “You two go ahead, scout it out. See if you can find any leads and then we’ll send in backup.” He paused, looking between them. “And don’t you  _ dare _ get married by an Elvis impersonator in a drive thru wedding chapel.”

“Johnny Cash only, Dad, I know what my wedding dreams were when I was a little girl.” Yang snorted, shaking her head. “We’ll see what we can find and report back. And I will stay blissfully unwed no matter how tempting the drive thru Elvis impersonators make it sound.”

“Johnny Cash?” Mercury asked as they walked back towards Roman’s car, one eyebrow raised. 

“ _ Ring of Fire _ has been my dream wedding song since forever.” She could feel his skepticism, the balance between believing her and calling her sarcasm. “My step-mom liked Johnny Cash. Used to listen to him in the car.” Her hand found his, fingers linking together.

“Fair.” He squeezed her hand, opening the car door for her and sliding into the back seat. “We’d better get packed up… Take the flight out to Vegas and see what the princess has gotten herself into.”

It wasn’t until she was loading her backpack that the realization crossed Yang’s mind. She snatched up her phone, scrolling through her contacts. “Why wasn’t Blake there?”

“Huh?” Mercury looked up from his bag, crossing the room to join her. 

“Blake. She wasn’t at the briefing. Why not?”

He paused a moment, considering before shaking his head. “My first answer was ‘she’s not a cop’ but none of us are cops except you and your family. So… Dunno.”

Yang’s fingers were moving on her phone screen, typing out a text message. She set her phone down, closing her eyes for a moment. “Something else is going on. Someone is pulling way more strings than my dad or my uncle have. A face match in less than a day? Getting TSA cooperation on the body scans? That’s some high level priority for someone who’s own family says she’s not missing. And this isn’t even technically a police case. Someone somewhere up the line is putting way more weight behind this than there should be, and no one’s telling us about it.”

“Does it matter?”

“What do you mean--”

“Think about it.” Mercury held up a hand, counting on his fingers. “We find the princess. We get our records erased. Emerald, Roman, Neo, me… We all get to go live normal lives. The stuff we did doesn’t follow us anymore. So what if things are fishy, we know how to watch out for each other. Blake gets her girlfriend back, we all get to decide what happens to our future.” He stepped closer to her, leaning in and kissing her slowly. “We can move back here so that your family is closer than an international phone call.”

Yang closed her eyes, reaching her arms up to wrap over his shoulders. “I still don’t like not having all the information.”

“We’ll look for those answers, too. Like I said, I’m not a cop. Therefore, I don’t have to follow the M.Y.O.B. Protocol.”

“That’s not a real thing, you know.” She snickered, kissing him quickly.

“Sure it’s not, blondie. That’s what they tell you to say when you’re following the protocol. You’re already a tool of their system.” They both laughed, parting slowly and going back to packing. 

It’d be okay. Just like Mercury said, they’d get Weiss back and everything would work out just fine.


	3. Chapter 3

Yang snapped the radio off, taking a second to look away from the bustling traffic and give Mercury her most withering stare. “That video was the worst thing you ever watched.”

“Hey, welcome to Paradise. Technically an unincorporated place and--”

“Stop trying to sound smart, you’re not impressing anyone.” She reached over, punching his arm lightly. “And shoes off the dash, this is a rental car.” 

Mercury dropped his legs back to the floor, leaning on his door and watching out the window. “So y’know how I was all… this is gonna be easy, we find her and we move on?” He scanned the crowd waiting for the crosswalk as they passed through another intersection, dozens of people lingering in the desert sun. “I… might have been just the tiniest bit wrong.” Vegas was called Sin City for a reason. Sin tended to flourish after dark. 

“That’s why we made this easy on ourselves,” Blake spoke up from the back seat, leaning forward between them. “The Schnees aren’t willing to talk, but I know almost as much about them as Weiss does. Like their connections, for one thing. They may want her to disappear, but they don’t want to lose track of her, either.” Her eyes scanned out the windshield, a frown on her face. “Uh, Yang? You just missed the turn.”

“I’m not making a left in this traffic without a light. We’ll go up a block and circle back.”

“I can’t believe it,” Mercury snickered. “Put you on two wheels with only a helmet between your skull and the ground, and traffic laws are for suckers. But four wheels and surrounded by a metal cage and you drive like a grandma on a Sunday.”

“Hey, it’s a rental car.”

Blake snorted, sitting back as they approached the next traffic light. Vegas. It had to be Las Vegas… A place still run by just enough of the mob that she was starting to worry about her chances of actually finding Weiss. Her family wouldn’t do anything…  _ too _ sinister. Probably.

It hadn’t been just their relationship that had gotten Weiss in trouble, after all. There was the whole illegal street racing and illegal gambling, the misuse of company funds to buy off police, and when the whole thing with Cinder and her gang had come to a head and it’d been rumored that they were actually working  _ for _ Schnee Motors, the board had demanded a shake-up. Even when the rumor hadn’t panned out, enough shit had hit the fan that Weiss’s options were to step down or be voted off the board.

She closed her eyes, leaning back in the backseat and tilting her head up. A string of bad luck was bad enough, but there must have been something else she didn’t know about. Something Weiss hadn’t even told her… Off the board was one thing. Disowned and disappeared? It didn’t feel like the sort of thing Jacques would do. It felt more like…

Whitley.

“...Blake?”

“Huh?”

“I asked if you were gonna get out of the car.” Yang leaned in the back door, a frown tugging down the corners of her mouth. “And if everything is okay… We’re gonna find her, you know.”

“I’m… yeah, I’m on my way.” She slid out of the car, taking her backpack when Mercury handed it to her from the trunk. “I was just thinking… Nevermind.”

The concerned frown didn’t quite leave Yang’s face, her eyes searching Blake’s for a moment. “Merc, head on in. We’ll be up in a minute.”

“Uh-huh.” 

Yang leaned on the car, looking around the small parking garage before meeting Blake’s eyes again. “I can’t imagine what it’s like… if someone I cared about so much just up and disappeared, well…” She trailed off, snorting to herself. “Then again, I guess that’s what I did.”

“Yeah…” Blake moved closer, nudging Yang’s shoulder. “At least for you, I knew what happened. With Weiss… I’m trying to piece it together.”

“You’re not the only one working on it. And I mean it, we’re going to find her.” Her arm slid over Blake’s shoulder, squeezing her close for a moment. “Come on, let’s head up to the room before Mercury decides he wants the whole bed to himself.”

They moved up to the lobby, picking up room keys and getting into the elevator. The room was on a higher floor, though the view wasn’t much, looking almost directly across a narrow side street to another hotel. Mercury had already dropped his bag on one of the beds and sprawled out, his gaze on the ceiling. Yang flopped down next to him, turning and pressing a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “You good?”

“Yeah. Don’t worry.” He sat up a bit, looking over to Blake at the other bed. “So, you said connections, what kinds?”

“Business stuff mostly. The company has a few big functions every year out here and they always use the same hotel for the conferences and rent out a bunch of suites. I don’t know if it’s just a personal choice or if there’s a connection there, but we should check out The Anima.” From her pocket Blake pulled out her phone, opening up the map. “It’s not too far from here, either. So we don’t have to deal with Yang’s granny-driving.”

“You wanna drive, Belladonna?”

Blake laughed. “Point taken. We’ll head over there later tonight.”

“Why wait?”

Mercury answered for her, his eyes on the window. “Because we don’t want people to notice us poking around. We’ll head out in a bit, wander our way over there from attraction to attraction.”

* * *

“I expected to get progress reports on this without having to bypass your security.”

Qrow groaned, dropping his flask into his desk again. “Do you know what a closed door means?”

Winter shut the door behind her, cold gaze on Qrow at his desk. “Why hasn’t your ‘crack team’ of convicts and runaways found my sister yet?”

“You’ve been digging in files you shouldn’t be.” He slid the drawer shut, flipping through his files to Weiss’s. He might as well give in to whatever Winter wanted to talk about. There was no faster way to get her out of his office. “What did you find in your search?”

Winter took a seat, her own file stacking on top of his. “A bunch of criminals and your niece who decided to run away with them instead of doing her job. I gave you my father’s story. I got you access to airport security. I expect better answers than ‘she might be in Las Vegas’.”

“Do you want to take on this case yourself, then?”

“Excuse me?”

He closed his eyes, pushing the file aside and flipping his open. “Do you want to look at your own family and pick apart their shady deals? Their back room bargains? Their money-exchanging handshakes? Or do you want someone else to give it to you in a nice, clean package with easy answers?”

“If you’re implying that I’m afraid to get my hands dirty--”

“I’m  _ implying _ that your judgement might be clouded by personal connections. That you might not be able to look at your family and say ‘these are criminals’ like you’re intent on doing to mine.” Granted, he was wary of Yang’s new friends, but he didn’t need to share that information. And Ruby seemed to think that Emerald had fully rehabilitated. One out of five wasn’t a great track record. Especially when one of the others had completely dropped off the radar. “Also, you’re forgetting that it’s not just my ‘convicts and runaways’ working on this. Your sister’s personal bodyguard, the one who reported her missing, is being kept in the loop. Against police department wishes…”

He met Winter’s eyes across the desk, expecting fire, expecting ice. He didn’t expect the softness there, the underlying desperation. “I don’t care how you do it. Just find my sister.”

“We’re trying. And as soon as we have something concrete, I’ll call you personally.” He shouldn’t have to put on the kid gloves for the CIA.

A feeling Winter seemed to agree with, her gaze hardening instantly, any softness and desperation almost immediately gone. “I’m not giving you my personal number. Email me.” She stood, picking up her file and meeting his gaze across the desk. “But thank you.” Gone as suddenly as she’d entered, door slamming behind her. Qrow sighed, picking up his flask from the desk and taking a drink.

“Okay… Now I just need that progress.”

* * *

Without gambling and spending way more than necessary on shows, Vegas didn’t offer much in the way of ‘attractions.’ Maybe if they’d had someone to show them around, a local or near to it, but the three of them managed almost an hour of casual strolling before arriving at The Anima. 

They split up inside, Yang to the bar, Blake to the theater, and Mercury to the casino floor. There was no guarantee Weiss was there, but there was also no harm in asking around. Blake seemed to have some sort of idea of what could have happened, even if she was keeping quiet about it. Yang didn’t question it for the time being. If they didn’t get results in a few days she’d pin the other girl down and ask for answers, but for now…

She took a seat at the bar, pulling out her wallet and setting a bill on the clean surface. The bartender that approached her eyed the bill for a moment, before nodding. “What can I get you?”

A fifty for a drink wasn’t just asking for a drink and they both knew it. There was no reason to be coy. “Strawberry sunrise, please. With one of those little umbrellas in it.” Yang grinned, sliding the bill across the counter, letting the picture of Weiss peek out from under it. “And I’m wondering if a friend of mine came through here.”

The money disappeared into the bartender’s apron as she went to make the drink, the picture staying on the bar. When she came back she actually looked, bright blue eyes narrowing. “I see a lot of people every day. Got any more information?”

Yang watched her face, the small twitch of one dark eyebrow. The slight upward draw of the corner of her mouth. Oh yeah, this chick knew something. “Her name’s Weiss.” Another twitch of the eyebrow. “And she… probably isn’t happy to be here.”

The bartender pushed the picture back, shaking her head. “Nah, everyone I see is happy to be here. If you want unhappy people…” She looked around, lowering her voice. “Head to the back, ask for someone in security named Shay. Tell him Vernal gave you this.” She pulled a card from her sleeve, passing it over to Yang. “Now beat it, blondie. I’ve got work to do.”

Yang took the card and the picture of Weiss, slipping both into her wallet. She took her drink with her as she left, sipping it and pulling out her phone to text the others.

They met up in the second floor lobby, looking down from the balcony to the bustling casino floor below. Blake inspected the card, handing it back. “Not much to go on.”

“I showed her Weiss’s picture and she definitely recognized her. I’m gonna go find this Shay person and see what he says.” Yang pocketed the card, watching security move on the floor below. There was definitely something less friendly about at least some of them. Vegas wasn’t completely controlled by the mob anymore, but… Maybe parts of it were still stuck in the 50s.

Mercury hummed, tapping his fingers on the railing. “This whole place feels like…” He thought on it, shaking his head slowly. “I don’t know. It’s not good, though.” His hand found Yang’s, squeezing gently. “I should go with you for this whole… Shay thing.”

“Try to. If it’s as sketch as you think, they might not let you come with me. But hey, that’s what phones are for.” She smiled, kissing him gently. “I’ve got this. After all, I’m dating a hardened criminal.”

Blake snorted next to them, shaking her head. “I’m gonna keep asking around as much as I can. Let’s meet up here again later.” She took off for the elevator, leaving the two of them where they were.

It couldn’t have been easy on her. Yang frowned after Blake’s retreating form, pulling her phone out and looking it over. “You’re right, though. This place feels shady as hell. I’m gonna let Dad know what’s up, see if he wants to send us some backup in case things start going down tonight.”

“Tell him to send our bikes. I’m not gonna let your granny driving be the reason we lose her in a car chase or something.”

“Mercury, this isn’t a movie.” 

Fifteen minutes later as Yang was being led down a back hallway, subjected to impersonal pat-downs and checks for if she was wearing a wire, her phone confiscated by a leering security guard, she had to admit that it felt like one. Shay opened a door, nodding slightly for her to enter the room. “Enjoy the game.”

She looked around, taking in each person in the room. Already sat at the table were two men, one middle-aged and huge, the other smaller, smartly dressed with a mustache. Yang settled into a seat across from them, tapping her fingers on the table. What was going on? She hadn’t wanted to ask questions, but... It might have been a good idea.

The door on the other side opened and Yang sucked in a breath, eyes widening. That was… There was no way. Cinder?

The woman met her eyes, her own eyebrows raising. She shook her head dismissively and Yang swallowed down her reaction, sitting back as Cinder took a seat. Okay, pretend they didn’t know each other. But what was Cinder doing here?

There wasn’t time to question it as the door opened again, Weiss stepping into the room followed closely by--

Yang couldn’t help the gasp, the word that left her mouth. “Mom?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not that anyone is gonna believe me except the people I talked about this plot with, but the scene at the end there, where Raven has Weiss?
> 
> I absolutely thought of it before v5 came out and it happened in canon.


	4. Chapter 4

At first, it had been anger.

How could she, how _dare_ she, the family name, the _company_ name, the opinions of the shareholders, the opinions of her _father_. Weiss had taken this all in stride, defended herself with poise and grace. The sales numbers, the public relations not with men in suits who bought their potential but people on the streets who bought their actual products.

Until Whitley had opened his mouth. It _had_ to be Whitley, there was no one else it could be. He must have overheard a conversation she had with Blake, or seen something, or… Or Weiss didn’t know, but the press coverage, the news that Schnee Motors had supposedly _hired_ some thugs to rob trucks and disrupt competitors supply lines. And who would take the fall for it? Well, the one who was already on the short list for a variety of offenses.

She’d accepted stepping down from the company with as much grace as humanly possible and--surprise, surprise--the rumors about any sort of corporate involvement with the WTCH gang had cleared up quickly.

It _should_ have all been okay then. Things shouldn’t have changed, she should have still had Blake and at least some comfort in her life. Should have…

Things had spiraled quickly. Even now, Weiss couldn’t piece it all together. A late night poker game of her brother’s, overheard conversations about getting her ‘out of the way.’ If she’d had more she would have told Blake everything. As it was now, she only had to hope that Blake would find her. They could run away into the sunset together on Blake’s bike. Start a new life somewhere else where their pasts wouldn’t follow them and--

“Come on. We’re going downstairs.” Raven’s voice cut off her more pleasant daydreams and Weiss snapped to attention, nodding. She stood, letting the older woman take her arm and lead her to the elevator. Arm candy in a casino. Arm candy in one of the only casinos on the strip that was _definitely_ still heavily controlled by organized crime.

The elevator ride down was silent, Weiss’s eyes on their reflections in the mirrored door. Raven reminded her of someone, she’d been trying to place it for days… Something in the attitude, or maybe the way she stood. Confidence that Weiss was familiar with, a look of ‘I can do no wrong but _you_ can.’ She shook it off as the elevator opened, once again settling on Raven’s arm as they strolled down the hallway.

“What’s tonight’s plan?” She questioned, voice low. There wasn’t a concrete schedule, dinner maybe, a show at one of the other resorts, or just hovering close to Raven while the woman talked and drank and gambled. Weiss had been quick to learn that the ‘plan’ was whatever Raven wanted to do and leaving before Raven was ready was pointless. But usually if she asked, she could at least prepare herself for whatever the evening held.

The corner of Raven’s mouth lifted in her usual half-smile, her hand drifting to Weiss’s back. “Tonight… I want to show you off.” One of the staff approached, speaking low and quiet, showing a laptop screen. Raven paused and Weiss glanced over, scrutinizing the image. She recognized two of the people on that screen.

Sitting at the table were four people, two men she didn’t recognize and two women she definitely did. On one end of the small group sat a woman with dark hair and a long red dress, the other side bookended by a blonde, dressed more casually than anyone else in the room. Cinder and Yang? What were they doing _here_ of all places? After the desert races and that fiasco they’d both disappeared off the face of the earth.

“Interesting…” Raven waved away the laptop, nodding. “It’s fine. We’ll see what she has to say for herself.”

Weiss frowned a moment before brushing the reaction away. She stepped into the room as the door was opened for her, followed closely by Raven, her gaze darting around the room and landing on Yang when the blonde gasped.

It wasn’t the sight of her that seemed to surprise Yang, however, the next word out of the other girl’s mouth, “Mom?” like a punch to the gut.

* * *

“Oh, I love this song!” Ruby turned the radio up, singing along and glancing over to Emerald every few verses to see if she’d join in. While the green-haired girl being tense and quiet was nothing new, it had gotten progressively worse as the day went on. Every moment since she’d hung up the phone call from her dad had seen Emerald’s emotional walls getting higher, her warmth towards even Ruby closing off.

The song ended and she turned the radio down again, glancing ahead at the miles of open desert highway. Her hands stayed steady on the wheel, cruise control taking care of acceleration. Her eyes started to Emerald again and again, gently prying with concerned looks.

“I’m supposed to let my parole officer know when I leave town,” Emerald finally murmured, her words spoken more to the window she leaned against than her companion in the car. Ruby waited, held her breath for just a moment, and there was more. “They’ll send me back to prison for that one.”

“Em…” She puffed out a breath, looking back at the road. That was what had her so tense? This little road trip? “One, you’re still with a cop. Two, I’m sure Ciel--I mean, Officer Soleil, I’m sure she’ll understand. And three… It won’t matter when we get back. You’re going to get your records cleared. It’s part of the deal for your help. You, Mercury, Neo, Roman…” She trailed off, not wanting to mention her, bring up that pain. Emerald could barely speak Cinder’s name. And the tension in the car had mounted, rather than eased. Emerald was finally looking at her, but her eyes were narrowed.

“What do you mean.”

“It’s…” The blank stretches of road were suddenly so much more compelling than eye contact with the girl next to her. “My uncle cut a deal. When everything happened with Yang’s undercover job and everyone else ran, he decided to go after the bigger fish. Salem herself instead of the rest of you. The local cops had to pin someone or the teamsters would have rioted… But it didn’t feel right, letting you take the blame, chasing them away. And when Yang went after them, we… started looking into ways to convince her to come home.” She smiled hesitantly, risking a glance at the girl next to her. “Figured that if we could clear all your names one way or another, no one would have a reason to stay gone.”

“In other words, it’s more of my prison sentence. Help rescue the Schnee heiress and you’re magically reformed.” Emerald snorted, crossing her arms. “Rather be in that halfway house with weekend visits from you…”

With an effort, Ruby didn’t slam on the brakes and pull into the breakdown lane. That wouldn’t have ended well, especially with the equipment she was hauling. But her attention whipped to Emerald just the same, her eyes wide. “What?”

“I... “ Emerald’s cheeks were slowly turning darker, her blush forcing her to look out the window and preserve _some_ dignity. “I like it when you visit,” she finally snapped, eyes narrowed at the setting sun. “I like knowing you’re coming to see me every weekend.”

“Oh… I like… I like visiting you, too.” All the light touches, the hugs, the cuddling, that was just how Ruby _was_ . Hardly an hour went by that she wasn’t making gentle physical contact with _someone_ nearby. But the words, the acknowledgement of what she was doing… Her own cheeks were getting pink, her gaze on the road ahead again.

“If… If this works out…” Emerald’s left hand nudged her thigh and Ruby dropped her right from the steering wheel, brushing their fingers together before holding onto her. “We could see each other more than just on weekends. I-if you wanted to.”

“I’d… like that…”

* * *

The room was still for an eternity, through the life and death of the entire universe. No one moved, no one breathed, not even a heart beat in the small back room.

“ _Branwen_ ,” Cinder hissed out, her eyes darting from Yang to Raven, then back again.

Raven’s weight shifted, her hips cocking, chin lifting at a haughty angle as the smile on her face grew. “Hello, Yang. So good of you to join us… But I won’t go easy on you here.” She took a seat at the table, her eyes turning to Cinder. “You know my daughter?”

“I know of her. She made a name for herself with your name in street racing recently.” Her eyes narrowed slightly. “I thought she was just a fangirl.”

“Like I would be!” Yang snapped back, looking over to Weiss and seeing the smallest of headshakes. Weiss knew, then. That was good. There was nothing they could do, that was… bad.

“Ladies, ladies.” The man with the mustache waved a hand at them, gesturing to the table. “Are we here to air dirty laundry, or to play cards?”

“Oh, shut up, Watts…” Cinder crossed her arms, sitting back. “Has blondie over here even bought in?”

“She has.” Raven’s voice refused further questions, her fingers on Weiss’s arm getting her attention. “You’ll play dealer for us, won’t you? No… unfair advantages from you.”

Weiss took a seat between Raven and Watts, picking up the deck there and shuffling it. “You should all know the rules by now, but for clarity… No limits. Seven card stud. When you’re out, you’re out.” She passed out the cards, laying out the poker game and sitting back. This… was not going to be good. This was just Raven flaunting for people. A game with higher stakes was on the horizon.

Seven card stud wasn’t Yang’s specialty, but it couldn’t be that different from the games of Texas Hold ’Em she used to play with her family. Check on the first round, watch the table, look for tells and try not to give away her own. Which… was not going to help her, she realized, stomach sinking. This wasn’t a family game of poker with house rules, there were no take-backsies if she got in over her head.

The metaphorical waters were rising quickly as Weiss laid down a third card in front of her. _Shit. Shitshitshit. How do you play seven card stud?_

Her panic must have been evident, Weiss leaning in close, voice low as the rest of the table contemplated their cards. “Do you know how to play?”

“Kind of? I play Hold ‘Em at home…”

“Oh my god you’re doomed.” She pointed to Yang’s hand, whispering instructions. “That’s your personal river, you just have to build it up over the next four rounds. Low card goes first, then clockwise around the table. Just call, don’t raise, fold if you have to, if you check everyone is going to look at you like you’re an idiot.”

“Feels like I’m already checking, then.”

“Shut up and pay attention. End of the fourth round, you’ll make your best five card hand. Best hand wins the pot.” She nudged Yang lightly. “Your move.”

“I… I’ll fold. Watch a round.”

The man to her right glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, snorting. “Did you come here to gamble or just to play voyeur?”

“I came here to win,” she snapped back, feeling the eyes on her. Keep her temper in check. Just get through this stupid game and get her mom alone to get answers.

She picked it up quickly enough, watching the other players, taking cues from them. Building her personal river, like Weiss had said. She could manage this. It wasn’t Hold ‘Em, but poker was poker. A straight was always going to beat a pair.

“I’m out,” the quietest among them finally spoke, his voice low and resigned. He pushed his cards towards the center, standing from the table and stretching. “Besides, business calls me away from pleasure.”

“That’s a shame, Leo. I’ll have to take your majority another day.” Raven’s smile was sharp, her nod to him what actually dismissed him from the game. Weiss redealt, her attention following each play. She’d picked up enough standing at Raven’s shoulder to know that Watts was her next target, seeing him out the door her goal more than taking whatever he’d wagered.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you wanted me to leave,” Watts spoke Weiss’s thoughts and she tensed, her eyes darting to Raven.

The comment wasn’t met with laughter, as it perhaps had been intended. Instead Raven narrowed her eyes and laid another card to the table. “I do.”

“Looking for some alone time with your dear daughter?” He laid down his own card, gaze turning to Yang. “She’s not very good at cards, you should have had her out long before Leo.”

“I’m holding my own,” Yang snapped, waving the round to Cinder.

“Because we’re letting you.” Cinder sounded bored, pressing all her cards to the table. “If it will move this along, I’ll call it.” She ended the round and Weiss called for final hands.

The players laid out their cards and Yang groaned. What had she even wagered? She had no idea, wasn’t sure she wanted to know. Watts’s insincere smile turned on her. “Seems you’ve played yourself out of the game.”

Yang looked to Raven, gritting her teeth together when the woman only nodded. Shay stepped into the room, held the door open and gestured Yang out. A different door than the one she’d entered… Interesting. Her stuff was on the other side, however, unceremoniously dumped on a cart. Yang picked up her cell phone, watching the security guards before moving down the hall. As soon as she was around the corner she called Mercury.

“I found her.”

“What?!”

“I’m in the back wing of the casino, gonna try to make it to the meetup spot. Grab Blake and bring her up there. But uh… we should… leave. Quickly.” Footsteps were approaching and Yang hung up, pocketing her phone just as Shay rounded the corner. Hopefully he hadn’t heard her.

“The exit signs point the other direction, you know.” He sounded bored and annoyed, rather than suspicious. Good.

“Must have gotten turned around, my bad. I think I’ll be able to find my own way now.” She strolled past him, eyes focused in front of her. It was impossible to tell if he was following her on the carpeted floors, but she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of looking.

A door labeled ‘Exit’ led to a wider hallway, the sounds of slot machines and conversations telling Yang she was back on the main floor. She made for the lobby, spotting Mercury and Blake at the balcony above and waving them down.

Once the three were reunited they left, hurried back to their hotel room and shut the door tightly behind them. “You found her?” Blake questioned, on Yang the instant the door was locked. “Where is she?”

“She’s with someone at the Anima… Someone named Raven Branwen. Also known as my mom.” The blonde sighed, dropping to the bed and stretching out. “It was… Weird.” She looked between them, biting her lip. “Like, backroom poker game. Someone named Leo and--” The buzz of her phone cut off her words, a text from Ruby that she and Emerald had reached the city. Yang texted back quickly, pulling herself to her feet. “Hold on, Ruby and Emerald are here. I’m gonna go wait for them in the lobby and we’ll figure this all out.”

Mercury followed her out of the room, leaning on the wall next to the elevator. “Your mom,” he started, his eyes narrowed. “Is that going to make things harder?”

“What do you mean?” They stepped into the elevator, thankfully empty.

“I mean that… family means different things to different people. I’d have no problem kicking my old man’s ass, but…” He let it hang in the air, his fingertips running up her arm. “Not everyone’s good at cutthroat.”

“I’ll do what I have to.” They stepped into the teeming lobby, finding a couch with a view of the front door, away from the noise of the hotel’s slow machines.

“You don’t have to justify it to me. Just… know.” He leaned in, kissing her slowly. “And know that I’m on your side.”

She dropped her head to his shoulder, her eyes closing. “I haven’t heard from my mom since… Before high school. I mean, she left before Ruby was even born. My step-mom raised my like her own until she died and even when I tried to ask dad about Raven growing up, I never learned much more than how to eavesdrop on him and Uncle Qrow.”

“When did you see her?” His eyes stayed on the door, one hand brushing her hair back lightly.

“Before I started high school and Ruby started middle school… Dad got offered a job with the department he’s with now. So we packed up and moved across the country, family road trip style. And while we were packing…” She snickered, shaking her head. “Okay, don’t call me dumb.”

“Sure thing, dummy.”

Yang huffed, pinching his thigh lightly. “While we were packing I found a letter dad had written to her with an address and everything. It’d been marked return to sender, but I guess… I guess part of me knew that she’d sent it back unopened. Or wanted to believe that. So I looked at our road trip map and I looked up the address and… God, I was _so_ dumb. We stopped at a rest stop like a hundred miles from there but I decided that I could get out and run to her house and find her, so I… I said I would wait in the car while everyone else got out, then just ran off.”

“Oh my god.”

“I told you it was dumb!” Even now it was hard to laugh at the memory. Things could have gone so wrong. “I got lucky, Uncle Qrow was driving behind us and he saw me just… Walking up the highway. He pulled over and got me into his car and him and dad ripped me up one side and down the other for the rest of the trip because I was _so_ stupid. And after that…” Yang took a breath, laughing unsteadily. “After that we got to the new place and dad let me call her. He had a number for her but he called it without telling me what it was and… She hung up on me. Not even a hello, just… silence and then the line went dead. So…” She pushed her hair out of her face, sitting up. “She’s not my mom anymore. She’s just some woman.”

“Okay… And seriously, you were the _dumbest_.”

“Oh, shut up.”

Their fake argument was ended as they spotted a pair entering the lobby, Emerald’s mint green hair making her stand out in any crowd. Yang stood and waved, her eyes immediately on Emerald and Ruby’s linked hands as they two approached. “What’s this?”

Mercury looked between them, his mouth curving into a smirk. “Oh, I know how this ends. You two gonna kiss under that fake Eiffel Tower outside? Get married by an Elvis impersonator?”

The reaction was instant, violent, both pulling away. Emerald reached up and shoved him back onto the couch, snorting. “Shut up, asshole.”

“Good to see you, too.” He stood up again, arching his back and looking around the bustling lobby. “Come on, Handcuffs, let’s get up to the room. Yang has some information.”

Mercury sat quietly as Yang went over it and answered questions, his fingertips skating up and down her back slowly. There wasn’t much he could contribute, this was clearly not his field. If it had just been a matter of a race or taking a wrench to someone’s kneecaps, maybe… But neither of those things seemed useful here. Raven had too much power for a simple fight and too much wisdom to wager on something she wouldn’t win.

Everyone seemed to recognize that, quiet and thoughtful as Yang finished her story. She leaned back into his chest, closing her eyes and letting out a breath. “There is… one more thing. One more person who was at the poker game.”

Leo, who no one knew anything about. Watts, a name that made Emerald and Mercury cringe. Raven, the most dangerous and least known factor. Why had Yang left out anyone else that was there, especially if it was useful to know?

“Cinder was there.”

Mercury met Emerald’s eyes across the room, held her gaze for a long moment before she looked away. Her breathing was slow, uneven, her fists clenching against the desk she leaned on. “Isn’t she with you?”

“No,” he answered for Yang, keeping his eyes on Emerald. “She left a few weeks after we got to Mexico. When Salem was arrested. None of us have heard from her until Yang saw her today.”

“Where is she now? Shouldn’t she be here, be helping us?” The panic was rising in her eyes, her breath wheezing in her throat. “She’s part of the deal, too, isn’t she? We help, we all--we all get a second chance. That includes… includes Cinder.”

“She wasn’t there to accept the offer.” Yang squeezed Mercury’s hand, frowning in thought. “Roman and Neo are back in LA ‘helping’ Dad put together case files. But Cinder… she had no idea why I was there, either. I’m sure of it.”

“I’m not doing this without her.”

“Emerald…” Ruby’s voice, low, her hand finding the green-haired girl’s and squeezing. “It’s okay.”

It wasn’t. Not even a little bit. Mercury tightened his arms around Yang for a moment, trying to recenter, refocus. Cinder didn’t matter. What mattered was the people that were there. The people that had stayed. “So Weiss is Raven’s… what, arm candy? Porcelain doll?”

“As far as I can tell. She reminded me of…”

“An exotic bird,” Blake spoke up, looking around the room. “Kept in a cage and shown off special. Oh, it’s a nice cage, but it’s still a cage. I don’t care how we do it, we have to get her out of here.”

“We will.” All eyes turned to Ruby as the girl stood, her fists clenching at her side. Determination radiated off her, her eyes meeting each person in the room in turn. “We have to.”


	5. Chapter 5

It was late but she couldn’t sleep. Not with what the day had brought. It kept playing over in her head, the look on Emerald’s face, the hope… Maybe she was only ever going to be second place to Cinder. Maybe…

“Can’t sleep?” Emerald asked beside her, rolling over in the bed and pressing her mouth near Ruby’s ear to talk. “Come on, let’s go for a walk.”

If there was any place to be awake at unholy hours of the night, it was Vegas. The two of them strolled down the strip, more crowded than midday, the neon lights almost as bright as the sun.

Not nearly as warm, though, and Ruby moved closer to Emerald, trying to share some of her warmth with the other girl. She’d worn a hoodie, at least; Emerald was in only a light t-shirt. “Hey, um…” It wasn’t an easy subject to touch on, wasn’t something that she even  _ wanted _ to bring up at a time like this. But she had to know. “About Cinder…”

“Don’t.” Emerald pulled away, her voice hard. “Don’t talk about her. You don’t  _ know _ her.”

“I just… If she’s involved, it means she won’t get the same deal as the rest of you.” Ruby bit her lip under the harsh glare Emerald gave her, taking her own step back. “Em…”

“If Cinder doesn’t get the deal, I won’t take it either. She would do the same thing for me.”

“She left you!” The outburst surprised them both, Emerald’s eyes going wide. “You never talk about her and I get it, it probably hurts, but she  _ left _ you, she abandoned  _ all _ of you and you don’t owe her anything--”

“I owe her my life. Stay out of things you don’t understand, Ruby.” Emerald turned and walked away, her steps quick.

It was another two hours before Ruby headed back to the hotel, slipping into bed and turning her back to the girl sleeping next to her. At least now she had a plan for the coming day.

* * *

Qrow stared at his phone, cursing under his breath. Of course. Of  _ fucking _ course. Why wouldn’t she be tied into this? Why would he ever think he had anything like good luck?

“Thanks, Tai…” he muttered, slipping his phone back into his pocket and stepping into his office. Things were only going to go from bad to worse when he emailed Winter with this update…  _ If _ he did.

The CIA was all about ‘need to know’ and he’d worked enough cross-ops with Jimmy back in the day that he recognized the pattern. What he ‘needed to know’ was the final answer and don’t question the steps along the way. Maybe Agent Schnee could stand to have the same… Qrow sighed, opening up his email and starting a new message. No. The FBI wasn’t the champion of bureaucratic transparency either, but neither one of them were working on an in-house job. If the roles had been swapped, if someone in  _ his _ family had disappeared, he’d be hounding whoever was looking for them just as hard.

His smile was rueful as he typed, the words of their last in-person encounter echoing back to him. And he’d accused  _ her _ of being unable to think of her family as criminals. It’d been years since he’d talked to Raven, longer since she’d been on the up-and-up, but even being a ‘scum-sucking Fed’ he’d managed to keep her in his blind spot. All that business about twins having some special connection to each other seemed to be the exact opposite for himself and his big sister. The less they were aware of each other, the better.

Qrow didn’t include any of that in the email to Winter, only the most cursory information possible. Weiss had been positively identified by one of his undercovers, was certainly in Vegas, and the best method for extraction was being decided on. She didn’t need the pile of family drama that came with it.

Come to think of it, neither did he.

* * *

“Step one,” Ruby started, laying out the necessary diagrams on the bed, all five hovering over them, “we teach Yang not to suck at poker--”

“I did not come here to be insulted by someone who thought Blackjack and Twenty-One were two different games.”

“Why are there two names for the same thing?!” Ruby shot back, huffing. “Okay, step one, we teach Yang to be  _ better _ at poker. Happy now?” There were no more protests, so she continued, shuffling the deck of cards that had been on the room’s nightstand. “From everything you’ve told us, these games are like… business deals. So you’ve gotta have something to bet, something Raven would want.” The others were wildcards. Leo most likely owned a business. Watts was a doctor. Cinder was a complete unknown. It’d be much easier to wager one on one, but they’d have to earn that… With some major wins. “You really have no idea what was your ‘buy in’ last time?”

“Nope. I talked to a bartender, showed her a picture of Weiss. She gave me the card and said to tell them that she gave it to me.” Yang shook her head, trying to picture the card. They’d taken it from her at some point, she hadn’t even noticed it was gone until Ruby had asked to see it.

“They know that you’re looking for Weiss, though…” Blake hummed, thoughtful. “Maybe someone else should try to get into the game?”

“Yang already knows a bit about what’s back there, though. Besides, the rest of us have other jobs…” Ruby dealt out cards as she spoke, her eyes narrowed. “Mercury. You got any threes?”

The intensity in the room broke with laughter, snorts and giggles from all five of them. Mercury laid his cards down, shaking his head. “We just need Raven distracted long enough to steal Weiss back. It doesn’t matter how she got there or who did it. Leave that for the actual cops--”

“I am an actual cop!”

“--and just get her back.”

Even Emerald was shaking her head, however. “We can’t just let this happen, though. Not just what Raven’s done, but whoever put Weiss in this position in the first place. I doubt she flew out to Vegas all ‘hey, I wanna become your arm candy, woman old enough to be my mother’.” She paused, another snort of laughter. “She’s not  _ me _ .”

Mercury laughed at that one, though everyone else remained serious. Ruby’s eyes lingered on Emerald, her hand reaching out to touch the other girl before drawing back. She cleared her throat, focusing. “Right. We need information more than anything. If Yang can get Raven alone she can start asking questions.”

“Bigger fish, just like last time,” Yang agreed, her hand finding Mercury’s and squeezing. “Raven’s done some awful things, no doubt, but if there’s someone who’s…” Human trafficking. They’d been dancing around calling it what it was, avoiding the implications that could come with it. “Who’s doing something worse, we need to stop them.”

Easier said than done, but as long as they had some sort of plan…

* * *

The bartender’s eyes widened when Yang walked back in and that, at the very least, was satisfying. Vernal’s composure returned in a second, but Yang recognized the look of shock that her return brought. She took a seat, leaning forward and keeping her voice low.

“I need--”

“To leave.” Raven’s voice behind her, making Yang jump. “Whatever you think you’re after, you won’t find it here.”

Yang turned slowly, her eyes narrowed. “You have no idea what I’m after,  _ Mom _ .”

“We’re not doing this here. Vernal, have some tea sent up to my room. With me, Yang.”

This was not the plan. This was not even close to the plan. Yang swallowed, looking across the bar towards Emerald and Ruby, shaking her head just slightly. The entire plan, ripped to shreds just like that. They’d let Blake and Mercury know.

The elevator ride to Raven’s room was tense, neither quite looking at the other. Yang finally snapped the silence, whipping around to face her mother. “Have you been here this whole time? Since you left dad? Since you left  _ me _ ?!”

“I moved around. Tried to keep out of sight.” The doors opened and Raven led the way out, down the hall to one of the end suites. “This setup has worked for that. Even that traitorous brother of mine won’t risk a crackdown on the strip.” She let them into the lavish suite, Yang’s eyes darting around at once. Weiss was probably here, right? She had to be. “Have a seat, make yourself comfortable. The tea will be up soon.” Raven did as she suggested, dropping onto a large chair and looking out past the city, past the suburbs, towards the desert that was trying to reclaim the land. 

There were too many questions circling in her head, too many opportunities to get answers she’d always wanted. Her dad was cryptic at best when it came to her birth mother. Qrow was slightly easier to pry information out of, but most of what he said boiled down to ‘she’s a bad influence.’ The woman in the chair seemed to fit and subvert all of Yang’s expectations at once.

Hesitantly, she took a seat on the sofa, drawing in a breath. Focus. Weiss was all that mattered. “Where’s the girl that was dealing cards the other night?”

Raven laughed softly. “You really are just like your father… A shame.”

“I’d rather be like him than you any day.”

That got a reaction from the older woman, her eyes narrowing. “You’d be wise to think before you speak, my daughter or not. I won’t tolerate disrespect in my business.”

“You were never a mother to me.”

“You--” Raven’s anger was smothered by a knock at the door, a woman coming in. She set the tea set down on the table between them silently, pouring two cups before turning and leaving. The interruption was enough time for Raven to regain her control, lifting her cup calmly and taking a sip. “You won’t find her.”

Yang swallowed, kept her voice calm. Ignored the way her hands shook as she reached for her own cup. “What do you mean?”

“I mean just that. She’s being relocated as we speak. It would seem that unlike some people at that table, Arthur Watts has the skill to back up his claims when it comes to cards. Assisted by that Cinder woman, of course.” Raven’s eyes were on her, intense, pinning Yang in place with the truth. “If you intend to steal her away, it won’t be from me, it will be from them. And I doubt they’ll make it easy.”

“Why tell me?”

“I don’t like being swindled.”

Yang dropped her teacup, her hand falling to her phone. “But you waited long enough to…” To make it a challenge. This was a test. Testing what, Yang wasn’t sure.

“They’re going to leave on a private jet from the Mistral Airfield. Good luck.”

She hit the elevator at a run, phone to her ear. “Mistral Airfield. Arthur Watts has her. Won her in the card game last night. Cinder helped him, she’s probably with him.” No time to stop and think about Emerald’s feelings if they wanted even a chance of catching up to Weiss.

“Got it.” Mercury hung up the phone, wheeling his and Yang’s bikes off the back of Ruby’s Jeep with Blake’s help. He started his up, setting it to idle as he moved to Yang’s, his eyes on Blake. “Are you better at shooting or driving?”

Blake pulled the gun from the glovebox as Ruby and Emerald ran up to them, her eyes serious. “I can do both.”

“Good. So can I.” Ruby pulled a second handgun from the center console, looking at the three wide-eyed gazes on her. “ _ Cop _ , remember?”

“Mistral’s north of here.” Emerald had her phone out, scrolling through a map. “There’s no fast way to get there, we either go south and around the city or north through it.” She looked back as Yang ran to the parking garage, taking a breath. “We have to stop them.”

“Ruby, Blake, you two go south and around. Yang, Emerald, and I will go through the city. If we can find them we can keep an eye on them, at least. Emerald, on my bike.” Mercury mounted his bike as he spoke, Emerald climbing on behind her. Ruby and Blake hopped into the Jeep, starting it up as the other three pulled on helmets.

There was no point in questioning how they’d know what to look for, how they’d even know if they weren’t already too late. Yang rolled into traffic from the parking garage and gunned it, whipping between cars, taking side streets and alleys to avoid traffic lights. Mercury was beside her, Emerald’s arms wrapped around his waist, her weight leaning with him. They should have brought a third bike or a second car or anything to make their search easier.

The headset inside her helmet blipped and Yang reached down without looking to answer the call, Mercury’s voice in her ears. “They won’t know we’re after them.”

“No.”

“Then they’ll be driving like normal. Watts is a show off, look for a gold luxury car. He was our redistribution guy when we were working for Salem and he likes the finer things in life.” And how he had avoided prison wasn’t worth questioning right now.

Yang slowed down, weaving between cars on the busy strip, scanning for it. There, the next light up, signalling right for the on-ramp-- “You see that one?”

“Two lights up, signalling left?”

“One light up, signalling right. Shit. Split up?”

“I’ll go left. Stay in touch.” Mercury and Emerald pulled away, cutting through traffic as the lights turned green. Yang gunned the throttle, riding the shoulder and getting up closer to the gold car as it pulled onto the highway.

The windows were tinted dark all the way around, seeing inside an impossibility. She cursed under her breath, racking her brain for a plan. She had to know if this was the car that Weiss was in or a really strange coincidence. Heading north out of the city said yes, said that Watts would take the most direct route. Trust her gut. It’d gotten her this far in life.

Yang eased back slightly, staying behind the gold car. Mercury had either muted her call or hung up and at highway speeds she couldn’t exactly call him back. Out here with no back-up wasn’t the ideal situation, they  _ really _ should have brought more bikes.

“You hear me, blondie?” Mercury’s voice in her ear again, her heart leaping into her throat. Did he have her?

“Loud and clear, pretty boy.”

“Where are you? I tailed a couple of old German tourists to a Chinese restaurant south of the city and I  _ guess _ I like Weiss more than eggrolls.”

“Just barely!” She could hear Emerald’s voice in the phone and stifled a laugh.

“Heading north in I-15, just past the Sahara Ave exit. Looks like we’re going up through the city.”

“On my way. Emerald’s got Ruby and Blake on her call, they’re gonna meet us as close to the airstrip as possible. And Yang?” His voice was low, serious. “Be careful. I love you.”

“You too. I--you too.” She picked up the pace a little, the distraction of the call putting a few cars between her and her target. Yang eased up to behind it again, her heart racing in her chest. Heavy traffic, high stakes, all of it to save not just her friend, but her family. If they could crack this case, bring in the perpetrators…

Yang hadn’t let herself dwell on it since she’d gone down to Mexico. Hadn’t let herself think about how much she missed Ruby and her dad. How much she even missed being a cop. Mercury had kept her warm at night, Roman and Neo had kept her busy during the day, and when the ache in her chest had been too much--well, she was always free to leave them. To go home. What had stopped her was the pull, the tug between the two worlds. Go home, find out if she could ever rejoin the police, forget her family of wanted fugitives. Stay with them, work in the modest garage they’d built, forget the family she’d grown up with. She couldn’t have it both ways.

And that was what it had been when she’d agreed. A chance to have it both ways. 

Now, though… Yang exhaled slowly, edging her speed up just a bit as the traffic finally started to thin out. She could see Blake’s face in her mind’s eye, the look of too many sleepless nights, the growing desperation. Her dad had worked missing persons for a while when he’d first been promoted to a detective. If that was the look that he had to face going to work every day, she didn’t know how he could ever let a case go unsolved.

The look on Weiss’s face when she’d seen Yang at that poker game. Hopeful and then resigned. Knowing that Yang was there to save her but also that it was impossible. How was anyone supposed to live with themselves if they let the latter come true?

It wasn’t about her. It wasn’t about Neo, or Roman, or Emerald, or Mercury. It was about Blake and Weiss, about reuniting them and proving to them that things would be okay.

She couldn’t lose focus on that.

“Coming up on your six.” Mercury spoke in her ear and Yang didn’t need to look for him, could place the high-pitched buzz of his engine. Flynt engines really did sound like a nest of upset wasps.

“I’m not positive that it’d her in there, haven’t gotten a good look.”

“That’s what we’re here for.” Mercury blew past her, slipped his way up in front of the gold car. Emerald turned around on the bike, lifting her visor and looking at the windshield, the only thing that wasn’t tinted. She flipped it back down and turned around again, Mercury’s bike slipping onto the off ramp and slowing before rejoining Yang behind the car. “She’s in there with Watts and his driver.”

The buzz of Mercury’s bike was getting closer, getting louder… Yang frowned inside her helmet, daring a look around. “Do you hear that? Is something up with your bike?” She saw both of their helmets moving, looking around as well, before Mercury suddenly jerked to one side. A new bike came between them, bright red, painted with flames. The rider’s helmet matched, though the visor was clear and she looked between them with burning eyes.

“Cinder.”


	6. Chapter 6

“Get to the airstrip, Yang’s tailing them on the highway.” Even over the phone, Emerald’s voice exuded frustration. She and Mercury had chased some tourists nearly five miles out of the way, an eternity in this traffic. “We’re going to catch up with her and make sure we have the right car.”

“Right. Be safe, Em.” Ruby glanced to Blake in the passenger seat, swallowing down her nerves. All the car chases she’d been involved in before, she had her bubble light to get people out of the way. In just her Jeep, there was no way of getting past traffic. It was time to put those defensive driving lessons her dad had insisted she take to the test. “Seatbelts, kids…”

They wove between traffic, nowhere near as deftly as a motorcycle but still making good time. Ruby pushed the gas pedal, edging the speedometer five miles higher, then ten. They had to make it on time, they had to--

“Shoot,” she hissed as lights popped up behind her, looking to Blake with wide eyes. Speeding, all the guns, and this was going to slow them down too much. “Um..”

“Floor it. They’re going to be our escort, even if they don’t know it.” Already cars were moving out of the way ahead of them, pulling over to let the cops pass. As long as they didn’t block the exit.

“We have the smallest of problems, Emerald,” Ruby told her phone, glancing in the mirror as she sped up.

“So do we.”

* * *

Emerald’s voice shook, her eyes locked on the bike between Mercury’s and Yang’s. Cinder. Cinder was back. She couldn’t… She couldn’t do anything, was completely frozen. There was no way she could work against Cinder, no way she could…

Ruby’s voice was in her ear, distant, unimportant. Emerald swallowed, tightening her arms around Mercury’s waist. Silent communication, get us out of here.

Cinder’s bike cut left suddenly and Yang slammed on her brakes to avoid a collision, wobbling, falling back. She turned her head to the right, sizing them up next to her. Emerald glanced down, her fingers clenching in Mercury’s t-shirt. They’d all been in a hurry, Cinder still had on her stilettos instead of boots. She couldn’t bike in stilettos. As long as they could outrun her…

She slid right and Mercury swerved to avoid her before pulling back in, a dangerous game of chicken. The metal of their bikes nearly touched, both wobbling before parting, getting some distance and control.

“You watch them, I’ll watch her!” Mercury shouted back to her, recentering her focus. The gold car was pulling ahead of their little duel. She glanced at the mile markers, cursing under her breath. There wasn’t much time…

Cinder wouldn’t hurt her. Cinder was the only person that cared about her, Cinder was… was everything. Emerald’s fingers loosened in Mercury’s shirt, her eyes trailing over to the woman on the red bike again. If she was going to be hurt, Cinder would help her, Cinder would stop and save her.

Mercury’s hand left the handlebars, grabbing her wrist and holding tight. “Emerald. Don’t.” His voice was shaking, even, his fingers rubbing her wrist. She refocused, tightened her arms around him. 

In therapy she’d talked about it, about Cinder, their relationship, how much the older woman meant to her. Slowly the terms had become past-tense, the conversations shifting focus, from what Cinder had been to her to what Ruby currently was to her. She had finally admitted it.

Cinder had left. Cinder had left all of them and hadn’t even tried coming back. Whatever they had… That was over. That had to be over.

She had Ruby now. Ruby who stayed, Ruby who came back, Ruby who… who… “Oh, god.” Ruby who  _ wanted _ to be with her, just as much as she wanted it. “Mercury, we have to get her off our tail.”

It was unlikely he heard her, but Mercury nodded anyway, cut right suddenly towards an exit. Emerald glanced back, unsure, just in time to see Yang’s yellow and black monster of a bike nearly slam into Cinder. The red bike jerked right, over the rumble strip and onto the off ramp. Soon all three were racing down it, the gold car slipping away. All they had to do was get to the next on ramp. 

The traffic on the surface streets was heavier, more difficult to avoid. They dodged and swerved through it, horns honking in their wake. Emerald leaned with Mercury, doing her best to keep a line of sight to Cinder.

Shriek of tires. Smashing glass. A crunch of metal and metal. She slammed her chest into Mercury’s back as he skidded to a stop, hauling his bike around and going in the opposite direction. “ _ Yang _ !”

* * *

Mozart. Pretentious, sure. Dull, moreso. Someone who wanted to pretend to know the classics but not bother to learn what there was to appreciate about them. Even if the answer was ‘not much.’

Weiss eyed the man next to her, her hands folded neatly into her lap. Won in a back room poker game. She was going to wring Whitley’s neck for daring to even  _ think _ he’d get away with this. Raven had been happy to explain it all when she’d been getting ready to leave, down to her guesses for how the rest of Weiss’s life would play out.

_ “He can’t hold onto nice things, why do you think he’s gambling in my back rooms instead of heading surgery in a hospital?” She feigned taking a drink with a conspiratorial wink. “I suspect he’ll lose you in a week, maybe less.” _

_ “Says the woman who couldn’t hold onto me for five days.”  _

_ Raven’s eyes narrowed, her fingers tugging Weiss’s hair sharply as she brushed it. “I was duped. For whatever reason, that Cinder woman was assisting him. Should have never let her into my game.” _

_ “I can tell you why.” She watched Raven’s face in the mirror, watched the unnatural play of emotions. Raven’s features were normally a mask, a look of confident indifference. Seeing so much there, anger, surprise, bitter jealousy… It would have been refreshing if it wasn’t vaguely terrifying. _

_ “Then tell me.” _

_ “Yang, your… your daughter. She’s an undercover cop. Or, she was. She had a job to infiltrate the racing scene out in LA and find out who was robbing trucks. The WTCH arrests? She kicked those off.” Weiss curled her fingers in her skirt, still watching Raven’s face in the mirror. “Cinder and her gang were working for Salem… But Cinder ran away to Mexico with the rest of them. So if I had to guess, Watts found a way to get her back into the country without being arrested, and she’s working with him because of it.” _

_ “Interesting... “ Raven stood, patting her back lightly. “Well, no time to waste. You have a plane to catch and I have a daughter to meet.” _

Yang would save her. Yang and her friends… and Blake. She knew Blake had to be there, knew her girlfriend would track her to the ends of the earth if that was what it took. 

Weiss glanced over her shoulder, biting her lip. The bikes that had been tailing them had increased from one, to two, to now three… and the third one didn’t seem very stable, swerving and almost slamming into Yang’s black and yellow bike. She faced forward again, steadying her breathing.

“You know, Mr. Watts…”

“Doctor Watts.”

“Right, Dr. Watts. You know… Mozart is horribly overplayed. Liszt is a much more refined sound, and personally I find the… fun of Brahms to be more enjoyable.” She smiled her most charming, mentally delighting in the moment of confusion on his face. Going to all those boring as hell concerts had at least given her an appreciation for classicists who thought  _ outside _ the damn box.

“Yes, well…” It was Watts’s turn to look back, his composure flustering. “We can, um, discuss.... These things more on the plane. Driver, do hurry.”

* * *

“ _ Yang _ !” Who was yelling her name? Her first thought was Mercury, the voice directly in her ears like his had been, but… that didn’t sound like Mercury. Mercury never sounded that… that afraid…

Yang forced herself to open her eyes, too dangerous to keep them closed so long on a bike. Except she wasn’t  _ on _ her bike anymore, she was on the ground, her skin scraped raw and stinging in more places than she could count. The last time this had happened she’d been in full protective gear and still almost lost an arm. Now, in just jeans and a t-shirt… It was amazing she was still whole enough to think about it, and not just a blood smear on the pavement.

“Yang, Yang talk to me!  _ Yang _ !” Someone was over her, shouting, shaking hands touching her lightly before pulling away. “No, no no no no, this can’t happen, say something, move, something Yang please I need you, I--”

“Mmm… Mercury…?” She turned her head with an effort, squinting through the cracks in her visor. Why wasn’t he on his bike…? “What’re you doin’...?”

Hot tears ran down his cheeks, finally falling with the relief that she wasn’t dead. She wasn’t dead… yet. “It’s gonna be okay, we’ll get you to a hospital, Yang just stay with me.”

“Mmhmm…” The voices were further away, less important. She was getting cold, a shiver running through her. Why was she cold in the desert? Was it night time already?

“Emerald. You have to go after them. Take my bike.” The green-haired girl frowned, silent conversation before she turned and ran. They had to get to Weiss.

Mercury focused on Yang again, touching her left hand--about the only part of her that wasn’t covered in scrapes and bruises. He couldn’t even see her right arm, it was pinned under her… her… “No… no, that can’t…” He leaned over, shoved her bike aside and let out a scream. It looked like his legs had after the accident on the track. He didn’t know what to do, he--

“Let me help, I’m a paramedic!” A woman dropped down beside him on the pavement, leaning over and sucking in a breath. “Do you know her?”

“Yang… Yang, you--”

She grabbed his shirt, shaking him slightly. “Look at me! Do you know her?”

Mercury swallowed, glanced at Yang again before focusing on the woman in front of him. “Yeah. Yeah, she--she’s my girlfriend.”

“What’s her name?”

“Yang Xiao Long.”

“Well, if we want to help Yang Xiao Long, you’re going to have to do exactly what I say. Give me your shirt and your belt. My husband is calling an ambulance.” She took the shirt, leaning over and pressing it over Yang’s arm, wrapping Mercury’s belt around it in a tourniquet. “Yang, sweetie, you’re doing great. Just lie still like that, okay?” She reached up, pushing the visor of Yang’s helmet up a few inches before it stuck. “Did you see how she crashed?”

“I… wasn’t looking, no. I just heard it happen.”

“We should take her helmet off in case she’s having trouble breathing… but moving her head without a support board is a risk.” Sirens in the distance and she breathed a sigh of relief, taking Mercury’s arm. “I want you to keep your hand right here,” she set his fingertips against the side of Yang’s neck, “and count her pulse. You got it?”

“Yeah, I got it.” Mercury counted under his breath, his focus so intent on that he didn’t notice when others ran up, wearing uniforms with medical equipment.

“What’s her pulse?”

“I think it’s um… one-ten? I don’t…” He moved back as he was instructed, standing next to the woman. “Does that sound right?”

“Sounds close. You did great, they’ll take it from here… Don’t worry, she’ll be fine. Once they load her up, my husband and I can drive you to the hospital if you want?”

Mercury watched the stretcher take Yang, biting his lip. “Yeah… Yeah, that’d be good.” He’d have to call Emerald and find out what happened later. For now, Yang needed him more.


	7. Chapter 7

They’d lost the tail. Something had happened, something with Cinder and an accident and Yang. Blake and Ruby exchanged a look in the car, the sirens around them growing louder as more cops joined the chase. They were almost there, almost at the exit… but the last two had been blocked by barricades, major streets inaccessible. The suburban sprawl around the airport had thinned, sod and astroturf lawns replaced with dry desert and rocks.

“How do you feel about off-roading?” Ruby asked softly, watching the sign fly by that said their exit was in one mile.

“How does your Jeep?” Blake asked back, looking over the ground.

“She can do it on the beach.” Half a mile to the airport exit. Ruby signalled left as if planning to switch to the lane that would rejoin the larger interstate, cutting the wheel hard right and slipping between a gap in the guardrail.

They bounced along with sirens still chasing them, but fewer now. The run for the interstate had been expected, the off-roading not so much. Ruby gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles, fighting for control on the uneven terrain. Blake braced a hand against the ceiling, her eyes on the airport access road ahead of them. Light traffic, no flashing lights, they’d be able to break in and-- “There!” A gold car, cruising sedately through a checkpoint. “That has to be them!”

“On it.” The Jeep nearly spun out as Ruby turned it to that checkpoint, floored the accelerator and sent them almost directly onto a pile of rocks. Her driving on four wheels was every bit as skin-of-her-teeth reckless as Yang’s on two, and Blake had to admit a new level of respect for that. They hit the pavement just as someone on a silver bike flew past, burning rubber and squealing tires following them through the checkpoint. 

The cops were back on their tail, had figured out where they were headed and moved to cut them off. Ruby narrowed her focus, slipped the Jeep into a gap between cop cars just behind whoever was on the bike. It was Mercury’s bike, but that definitely wasn’t Mercury. 

They pulled up on the plane as the doors to the gold car opened, piling out and both drawing their guns. “Arthur Watts!” Ruby called, her handgun trained on the mustached man as he stood from the car. “Stop right there! Everyone exit the vehicle and get down on the ground, hands on your heads!”

From the driver’s side another man stepped out, slowly followed the orders. Weiss exited the rear passenger side, her face surprisingly calm as she complied. Watts hesitated a moment, looking between the car and the warming up plane. “On the ground, Watts!” Blake’s voice had joined hers, barking the order with as much authority as any TV cop.

The silver bike rolled up closer to the gold car, movements careful and easy. Ruby kept her eyes on Watts, hearing tires screech behind them as the other cops pulled up. Let him think they had back up, let him surrender--

He turned and bolted for the plane and a single shot rang out, dropping him before he’d made it half a dozen steps. Weiss hopped onto the bike, ducking low and pressing her face to the rider’s back as they moved back towards the Jeep. Ruby glanced over her shoulder, biting her lip. “Did you…?”

“I shot him in the knee. He’ll live. Come on, we’d better appear non-threatening to the police.” Blake slowly set her gun on the roof of the Jeep, Ruby following suit. They stepped away from the vehicle with their hands raised as the two on the bike dismounted, waiting only long enough for Emerald to take off her helmet to follow their lead.

“Blake…” Weiss took a careful step closer, her raised hand brushing Blake’s. “I knew you’d come.”

“I’d chase you to the ends of the earth if that’s what it took.”

* * *

“That’s it. I’m retiring.”

Four sets of eyes looked up from the holding cell, stillness for a moment as they assessed the man on the other side of the bars. Ruby was on her feet in a flash, bolting across the small space and reaching between the bars to wrap her arms around the man on the other side. “Uncle Qrow!”

“You do not belong on that side of a prison cell, kiddo.” He ruffled her hair, waving one-handed to the guard. “Come on, let them out. Everything is in order, right?”

“Well… yes…” Ruby let go and Qrow stepped back, the bars sliding away between them. They walked out, Emerald taking just a moment to stick her tongue out at the guard. The man grumbled, waving them away.

“Where’s Yang? And Mercury? And what happened to Watts? Tell me we got him for the WTCH case this time.”

“Easy, pipsqueak. One question at a time.” Qrow led them outside, across the lot to the two vehicles in impound. “We’re going to go see your sister and her boyfriend now. The rest… It’s a work in progress.”

“So she’s okay?” Emerald’s voice was low, her fingers grasping Ruby’s and holding tight.

“It’s… a work in progress.”

Ruby drove them to the hospital, Emerald following on the bike. In the back of the Jeep Weiss and Blake sat as close together as humanly possible, their low conversation the only breaker of the silence. The white-haired girl finally spoke up as they pulled into the emergency room parking lot, her eyes on Qrow. “How did you find me?”

Qrow tilted his head back, looking her up and down slowly. “Had some help. Turns out that no matter how messed up your family is… your sister cares a lot about you.”

“My sister? Winter? Is she here?”

“Jimmy wouldn’t let her leave the office but…” he held up his phone, showing the flashing e-mail notification, “she wishes she was.”

“Can I call her?”

“She never gave me her number.” Qrow shook his head, passing the phone back. “Go ahead, you might as well write the response. Send one of those… what do you kids call ‘em, self pics? One of those.”

“Oh my god, your uncle is  _ so _ old,” Emerald whispered to Ruby, both girls giggling. The light attitude dried up as they entered the hospital, spotting Mercury in the waiting room almost immediately.

They sat around him, Emerald settling a hand on his knee and squeezing. “How bad?”

Mercury looked up, the dark circles under his eyes already telling half the story. He still wasn’t wearing a shirt and there was dried blood on him that he apparently hadn't even noticed. “Bad. Like…” he bounced his leg slightly under Emerald’s hand, “this bad.”

“Cinder?”

“Lost track of her.”

The wait was unbearable. Blake and Weiss sat nearby, refusing to be more than arm’s length away from each other for any significant time. Qrow stood near a window, occasionally stepping out to make or take a phone call. Emerald and Ruby paced, moving from one end of the wide emergency room to the other. And Mercury just sat, as he’d apparently been doing for hours now.

“Ruby!” Qrow called after one such phone call, holding up a hand. “Keys! Your dad’s at the airport and I’m gonna go pick him up. Call us if there’s any news before we get back.”

“Kay! Take care of my baby!” She tossed the keys to her uncle, turning to Emerald and taking her hand. “Hey, um… About… About the other night…”

Emerald squeezed Ruby’s hand, shaking her head quickly. “It’s okay. You were right. I…”

They both shifted, looking anywhere but at each other. Finally, Ruby drew in a breath, leaning forward and kissing Emerald gently. “I still like you, like, a lot.”

“I like you, too. Like, way more than a lot.” Emerald flushed, pulling Ruby just a bit closer and kissing her slowly. “We can work on… on this, right?”

“Yeah. We have a lot of time.”

“ _ What _ ?!” The shout got everyone’s attention, eyes whipping to Mercury as he stood in front of a nurse. “I’m going back there, if she’s out of surgery I want to be with her.”

“We need the permission of an immediate family member before we can let anyone back. It’s just policy.” The nurse frowned, clearly unintimidated. “Also, you’ll have to put a shirt on.”

“This is bulls--”

“I’m an immediate family member!” Ruby stepped forward before Mercury could get himself escorted out by security, pulling her wallet from her pocket. “She’s my sister. He’s her boyfriend. It’s fine with me if he goes to see her.”

The nurse frowned, skeptical, before checking something on her tablet. She looked at Ruby’s ID again, sighing and handing it back. “Okay. Follow me.”

Mercury nodded, giving Ruby a brief, grateful glance before heading through the security doors. Winding hospital hallways finally brought him to a room, the sound of beeping machinery and hushed voices inside. The nurse nodded him to the door, her look slightly more sympathetic. “I’ll see if I can find you a shirt, too. Go on in.”

Now that he was here, now that he could see her again, Mercury hesitated. “Is she…?”

“She’s still asleep post-surgery, but you can be there when she wakes up.” A light nudge pushed him into the dim room, his eyes adjusting slowly. Another nurse was in there checking the equipment and Mercury stayed near the door until she left. He crossed to the chair next to the bed, taking a seat on Yang’s left and holding her hand gently.

It could have been minutes or hours or days, he wasn’t sure. Watching her face, refusing to look any lower than he shoulders, any further to the right than her eyes, not wanting to know how bad it was. A blanket covered most of her but the bits of skin he could see were a painting of scrapes, scratches, and bruises. At one point someone brought him a shirt and he put it on numbly.

“How bad?” A voice asked at the door, someone stepping into the room and taking the other chair.

“Not… not good.” Mercury swallowed, licking his lips and looking up. Tai. Yang’s dad. He looked down again, frowning. “I did… I did what I could.”

“I know. She’ll be okay. My girl’s a fighter and this isn’t her first crash.” Tai’s fingers trailed along the right side of the bed, looking for Yang’s hand. He sucked in a breath when he realized, folding his hands between his knees instead. “Everyone else went back to the hotel. Blake and Weiss are heading back to LA first thing in the morning. Qrow’s gotta get back to work in a couple of days. You need anything from the room?”

Mercury thought about it, watching Yang’s face, hearing the steady beeping of her heart monitor. Fast asleep and resting easy. “I think I’m okay.”

“Then we’ll stay with her until they kick us out.”

Turned out, no one was too keen on doing that.


	8. Chapter 8

“Hey… can I tell you a secret?”

“Of course.”

A head dropped heavily to her shoulder, hand squeezing hers as the engines of the plane cycled up. “I’ve never flown coach before.”

“You are the world’s most spoiled brat,” Blake snickered, kissing the top of Weiss’ head. “But you’re cute, so it’s forgivable.” 

Pieces had fallen into place quickly once Weiss had actually gotten to sit down and talk to them. Yang’s uncle, Agent Branwen, had taken most of the statements. There wasn’t much he could do for the family dramatics, that was between Schnees, but he promised to hit Whitley as hard as possible for human trafficking.

Physically as well as legally, if Blake had her way. The urge to wring the little weasel’s neck kept coming back to the front of her mind. Seeing his smug smile turn blue--

That wasn’t justice, though. That wasn’t how she lived her life. Even if it would be cathartic as hell.

The courts would take care of it. All that mattered to her right now was getting Weiss home. Her apartment wasn’t a penthouse, but it was clean and it was hers. With Weiss finally in her bed again, it’d be theirs in no time.

* * *

The short knock on his office door announced Winter’s presence and for once he was prepared for her. Qrow closed the file in front of him, looking to the open door. “Come on in, Agent Schnee.”

She crossed the room steadily, took a seat and folded her hands. “I wanted to thank you. In person. For finding my sister. I know that I was… difficult. But I do appreciate the efforts you took to locate her and return her home.” The words were stiff, a speech she’d clearly practiced in advance. 

Qrow grinned, leaning back in his chair and looking past her. “Hey, most of the job was my ‘convicts and runaways’ working way above their pay grade. I just put a neat little prosecutor-friendly bow on it.”

His casual demeanor threw her off, Winter’s hands twisting around each other in her lap before she grasped them together to still them. “Yes, well, I still wanted to--to show my appreciation for your efforts in organizing all of this and--” She took a breath, refocused her words. “Perhaps you’d like to join me for a drink?”

“That does sound nice… But I’m afraid I’ll have to turn you down. I have someone to get home to tonight.”

* * *

She’d never been to a therapy session before. There was nothing wrong with it, obviously it’d helped a lot of people, but still… Ruby looked around the small office, frowning. “Psst… Emerald…”

“Yeah?” The green-haired girl next to her flipped through a magazine, not looking up. This was not the first whispered question she’d answered since they’d walked in.

“Where are the ink blots?”

Emerald lowered her magazine, slowly turning to stare at Ruby. “The… ink blots?”

“Yeah, you know, like… what do you see and what does it mean?”

“Ruby, that’s… This isn’t that kind of therapy.”

Her shoulders dropped, swinging feet coming to a stop. “Oh, okay.”

After a moment, Emerald picked her magazine up again and resumed reading. Ruby’s eyes moved around the room for the umpteenth time, taking it all in. A few cushioned chairs, a table with magazines, potted plants, a fish tank in the corner with turtles. Someone shuffled papers on the other side of the reception desk, a low voice speaking into a phone call muffled by the sliding glass window. It looked like every doctor’s office she’d ever been in, except for the lack of other people.

The door at the other end of the room opened and her attention shot up, watching the woman that left the room. She stopped at the reception desk, spoke quietly at the window before leaving the room. After a minute of quiet, the door opened again, a boy looking to them with a smile. “Emerald, you and your guest can come back now.” 

Emerald stood, taking Ruby’s hand and leading her into the room. She took a seat on the couch (which did not seem designed for laying down, Ruby noted with disappointment) and lightly patted the spot next to her for the other girl.

The boy that had called them back stepped around the desk, taking a seat and lightly shuffling some papers. He laid down a notebook on the table, looking between them and smiling. “I feel like today’s session will be very forward-looking.”

“I want it to be. I…” Emerald bit her lip, squeezing Ruby’s hand and smiling. Ruby squeezed back, glancing at her before turning to the therapist.

“Um, just one question before we start…”

“Yes, Ruby?”

“Are you, like, a child psychologist? Not for kids, but an actual kid?”

The boy behind the desk laughed, shaking his head. “I have all of my credentials, if you’d like to see them. I’m a registered therapist with a degree in psychology… And a minor’s in agricultural science.”

“Can you do therapy for, like, cows then?”

Again he laughed, waving a hand. “No, just seasonal crops. They get so depressed during the winter.” He grinned as Ruby dissolved into giggles. “I think we’ll get along great. No one else laughs at that joke.” The laughter dried up slowly, more professional demeanor settling over him. “So, Emerald, what should we talk about today?”

Emerald looked up, taking a deep breath. “So, Ruby and I spent the week in Vegas recently…”

* * *

“Goodbye, penthouse…” Roman sighed, looking forlornly at the lovely farmhouse sink and six burner stove. “It’s time to live in squalor again.”

Neo elbowed him in the side, her fingers twisting into words.  _ The new place is closer to work. _

“The new place doesn’t have this  _ view _ !” He wailed, gesturing to the wide windows that led to the balcony. It had almost seemed like an act, but those tears in his eyes were a little  _ too _ real.

With an effort she pulled him from the penthouse, down the elevator and outside. The doorman wished them well, tipping his hat to the pair as they left the luxurious building and got in Roman’s waiting car. 

He hadn’t actually seen there new place yet, had missed the chance at tours and been forbidden to go by Neo after she’d bought it. Unfair, in his opinion, but no one was asking for that. She’d just promised again and again that he’d like it.

She plugged the address in to his GPS and Roman drove, through busy city streets out of downtown. They passed work, the small coffee shop that they’d opened up across from the police station sitting dark and empty with both of them taking the day off. Two blocks further on Roman pulled up in front of the townhouse, looking the building up and down slowly. A strip of grass out front that was probably advertised as ‘green space’ by the seller.

It wasn’t a bad part of town, though. He could hear laughing kids nearby as he got out of the car, a park or a school nearby. Better than the constant blare of traffic at ground level downtown. Neo took his hand, leading him inside and through the house, not giving him time to appreciate each room. He did get a glimpse of the kitchen, the low farmhouse sink set into the island and--

Roman stopped dead, staring through the sliding glass door. “Neo…”

He could see her grin reflected in the glass, her hand reaching over and smacking his ass, propelling him to open the glass and step outside.

“It’s a screened in porch!”

_ Anything for you, babe. _

* * *

The nurse finished wrapping the bandages, smiling and nodding. “If you need anything, just call, okay?”

“Yeah… okay…” Yang’s eyes stayed on the sheets in front of her, her covered legs. Being back in LA wasn’t terrible, but still being in the hospital… She sighed as the nurse left the room, dropping back to the thin pillow and staring up at the ceiling.

She had to have the pity party while she could. When her family visited, she was all pep and acceptance. When Mercury came in, whining about her own problems seemed so petty. She’d seen his scars, knew the stories behind them… What was the big deal about losing an arm in a heroic police chase to save a girl? And she had some of the best medical care in the country working to help her heal.

Tears slipped from the corners of her eyes, trailed down her temples to the pillow. Yang wiped at them impatiently, growling in frustration and switching to her left arm. She turned, curled up with her back to the door. If she was sleeping, maybe everyone would just leave her alone for a while, let her wallow in self-pity a bit longer.

She must have actually fallen asleep, didn’t hear footsteps come in, didn’t hear someone take a seat in the chair next to her bed. Until she rolled over again, her arm--stump--aching too much to lay on anymore, she wasn’t aware Mercury was even there.

“Hey…” His voice was low, his eyes on her face as he slumped in the visitor chair. Yang pushed herself to sit up, teeth gritting down as her right arm tried to again wipe against her face and failed. “How you doing?”

“I’m fine.”

“Wow, that sounds like a lie.” That insufferable smirk surfaced on his face and he leaned forward, pressed a light kiss to her forehead. “You wanna talk?”

“I… it’s stupid. I’m just being a baby.” Yang looked away, fingers of her left hand tugging at the edge of the sheet.

Mercury made a noise of disagreement, though he stayed quiet. His hand crept across the bed, touched hers gently and linked their fingers together. They squeezed each other rhythmically, conversation without words. There were no words that would equal what those small flexes of their hands did.

Finally, Yang pulled him in closer, got him to sit on the edge of the narrow hospital bed. She pressed herself to his back, settled her chin to his shoulder and draped her arm around him. “I keep trying to use it.”

He waited, his fingers still squeezing hers gently to show he was listening.

“Like just this morning, I got up to brush my teeth and I couldn’t figure out why I kept missing trying to pick up my toothbrush until--until I looked in the mirror and remembered. And last night, I kept… dreaming? Imagining? Just going crazy? I dunno, but I  _ felt _ my fingers twitching against my thigh and then I’d wake up and look and there was nothing there.” She exhaled slowly, tilted her head down and pressed her forehead into his shoulder. “I  _ hate _ this. I hate being told that I’ll just get used to it. I hate being reminded that I’ll never… I’ll never…”

“Never be whole again?” He guessed, weight shifting, body turning so he could wrap his arms around her. “It sucks. It sucks and it never gets back to how it was before. It gets  _ different _ but not always  _ better _ and no one else understands it. Even I don’t understand exactly what you’re going through.” He tilted her chin up gently, pressed a kiss to her forehead again. “But no matter how bad it gets, I’m gonna be here for you. No matter how low, I’ll help you get up again. Promise.”

The floodgate opened, tears falling from her eyes unchecked as she pressed her face into his chest. “You suck,” Yang mumbled into his shirt, her shoulders shaking with a sob. “You  _ suck _ because that  _ worked _ and I feel  _ better _ now! You’re an  _ asshole _ .”

“You’re welcome, blondie.”


	9. Epilogue

Yang sputtered, looking between her father and her uncle. Beside her, she could feel Ruby’s slack-jawed amazement and, perhaps most confusing, Mercury’s amusement. “But… you two… how long have-- _ What _ ?”

“I mean… On and off since college? But uh this,” Tai lifted his hand slightly, fingers linked with Qrow’s, “this is a few years old.”

“But you’re--you’re  _ dads _ !”

“Technically, only he’s a dad.” Qrow shrugged, frowning just slightly at Mercury. “What’re you smirking at?”

“That they didn’t see it. I’ve only known you two for like two weeks, and  _ I _ saw it.”

“Oh my god!” Ruby bolted upright suddenly, her eyes wide. “I can give Uncle Qrow his dad gifts!” She ran from the room, the sounds of thumps and bangs trailing back through the house. “H-hang on, they’re in the back of my closet!”

“Anyways…” Tai slowly turned away from the racket Ruby was making to face Yang again. “We, uh, wanted to officially tell you kids, since Qrow’s moving in and it’s hard to be subtle when we’re sharing a bedroom and--”

Yang held up her hand. “I really don’t want to know anymore. But, um, congrats? This is weird. Didn’t you used to date his sister, too?”

“I get around.”

“Ew.” Yang stood, reaching back for Mercury’s hand and pulling him along. “Anyways, me and Thug Life here are running late. Ozpin wants to meet with me down at the station and he’s gotta get to work. Can’t have you blowing your first honest job ever, Mercury.”

Mercury rolled his eyes, standing up and giving Tai and Qrow a brief nod. “See you two around.”

It wasn’t a bad thing. If they made each other happy, she couldn’t judge. Yang pressed herself tighter to Mercury’s back as they got on his bike, wrapping her left arm around him. “You really knew?”

“They gave each other that look that said ‘I’m gonna rip all your clothes off later’ the first time I saw them in the same room and I guessed. Speaking of that look… Emerald and your sister.”

“Do  _ not _ make me think about my family members having sex more than necessary.” Yang groaned, her helmet pressing to his shoulder. Sedate cruising speeds in the suburbs, slow enough that they could talk while they drove. She hadn’t been much for going fast since the accident.

“I’m just saying, they seem to be trying real hard to make each other happy. When they had that date the other night, Emerald spent about two and a half hours making me tell her what clothes looked best. Seriously, you and I gotta find a place together soon so I don’t have to deal with that anymore.” He laughed, edging the speed up just a bit as they hit the main road. Yang’s arm tightened around him, her eyes squeezing shut.

Mercury parked them at the police station, dismounting the bike with her and taking his helmet off. “Hey…”

“Hey to you, too.” Yang grinned, leaning in and kissing him gently. “Don’t be late for work.”

“You make it hard to wanna leave, blondie.” He kissed her again, lifting a hand and brushing her hair back lightly. “I’ll see you when I get done tonight.” Mercury pulled his helmet back on, swinging a leg over his bike.

“Mercury!” Yang swallowed, her eyes on his through the visor. “Be careful. I love you.”

He waved, a short two finger salute before pulling out of the parking lot, merging smoothly into the bustling traffic. Yang exhaled, leaning against the building and rubbing her fingers along her upper arm. It ached lower down, always did when she got on a bike… Maybe the feeling would go away once she got that prosthetic the doctors had been talking about.

For now, though… Yang pushed herself off the wall, fighting down her nerves and heading inside. Ozpin wanted to see her.

* * *

Medical bill. Insurance bill. Mysterious letter with no return address--probably spam. “Oh, hey! A postcard from Blake and Weiss!”

Mercury looked over his shoulder, pausing the video game he’d been playing. “What’s up with the world’s most extravagant lesbians?”

Yang dropped down beside him, reading the short note on it.

_ Yang (and Mercury), _

_ Miss you guys so much but we’re having a great time here in Grand Cayman! Wanted to remind you that the invitation to come visit us is still open, travel expenses paid by Schnee Engines. Let Ruby and Emerald know, too. _

_ But the real reason we’re writing is to let you know that _

The writing changed, Blake’s tight cursive replaced with much larger writing.

**_We Got Married!_ **

The text was decorated with flourish and stars and Yang snickered. The excitement must have really gotten to them.

_ We also wanted to say thank you again for everything in Vegas. Can’t wait to see you, send your family our best. _

_ Love, _

_ Blake and Weiss _

“Aww… They got married. How sickeningly sweet.” Mercury shook his head, picking up the rest of the mail. “What’s this?” 

“Probably junk. Go ahead, I guess.” Yang shrugged, flipping open her bills. Ugh, her savings account was taking a beating, even with the job that Ozpin had given her and Mercury’s paycheck from the garage.

Mercury opened the blank letter, frowning as a slip of paper fell out. He picked it up, his eyes widening. “Uh, Yang?”

“Mm?” Maybe if she asked her dad--no, she couldn’t do that, he and Qrow were a single income household now that Ruby had moved out.

“This… doesn’t look like junk mail.” He passed it over, letting her read the brief note.

_ Yang, _

_ You really are just like your father. Rushing in to stupid things and getting yourself hurt. _

_ I like that. _

No signature, no indication of who it was from, but she knew. Her mom. Raven. The check from the Anima Resort and Casino, more zeroes on it than she’d ever had in her bank account, only confirmed that.

_ For your bike _ , the memo field read and Yang grinned. There was never a question of  _ if _ she was going to ride again, just  _ how _ , and this had certainly answered it.


End file.
